From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

The Republican bill to pay the essential workers would have passed
with 54 votes over the Democrats 45, but filibuster rules let
the 45 block it (needed 60).

from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/essential-workers-left-unpaid-after-senate-democrats-kill-pay-bill

Essential workers left unpaid after Senate Democrats kill pay bill Johnson-Young legislation would have compensated federal employees and military during current and future shutdowns
By Leo Briceno , Elizabeth Elkind Fox News
Published October 23, 2025 1:18pm EDT

Consequences of government shutdown are becoming rCyvery realrCO: Senate majority leader
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., discusses the rCypolitical
gamerCO Democrats are playing with the government shutdown on rCyThe Story.rCO

Democrats blocked a Republican-led attempt to provide essential
government workers with paychecks amid an ongoing, 23-day shutdown,
calling the bill overly selective and incomplete.

That bill, proposed by Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Todd Young,
R-Ind., failed in a 54-45 vote, where 60 votes were needed to advance
the bill over the threat of a filibuster.

Only three Democrats, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Raphael
Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia, voted with Republicans.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer at the Capitol
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., turns to an aide during a
news conference at the Capitol in Washington, June 3, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

placeholder
In addition to compensating federal employees and military personnel
during the current shutdown, the bill would also extend relief to future instances where funding bills arenrCOt in effect.

"For fiscal year 2026, and any fiscal year thereafter, there are
appropriated such sums as are necessary to provide standard rates of
pay, allowances, pay differentials, benefits, and other payments on a
regular basis to excepted employees," the bill reads.

SENATE STALLS ON SHUTDOWN VOTE AMID WARNING FURLOUGHED WORKERS MAY LOSE PAY

Johnson had pitched his bill as a long-term solution.

"I just hope, on a nonpartisan basis, we do something that makes sense
around here for once," Johnson said ahead of the bill's consideration.

"With Democrats continuing the Schumer Shutdown, they should at least
agree to pay all the federal employees that are forced to continue
working. The 2025 Shutdown Fairness Act is a permanent fix that will
ensure excepted workers and our troops are paid during a shutdown,"
Johnson said.

Other Republicans blasted Democrats for voting against the bill.

placeholder
"It means Democrats don't care," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. "We
know this is going to end sometime. The question is when. I guess it
will depend on how much carnage the Democrats want to create. To me,
they are in a box canyon, and they can't figure out how to get out."

Essential federal employees have been asked to continue working since
the government entered a shutdown on Oct. 1 after lawmakers failed to
pass spending legislation to begin the 2026 fiscal year. Republicans
have advanced a short-term spending extension that would open the
government through Nov. 21. Democrats have repeatedly rejected that
proposal though, demanding that Congress first consider an extension to expiring COVID-19-era supplemental funding for Obamacare health
insurance subsidies.

Republicans, who maintain that the health insurance subsidies are
unrelated to the governmentrCOs short-term funding needs, have rejected
those demands out of hand.

Democrats in the Senate have voted 12 times to defeat the stopgap bill.

JOHNSON WARNS US 'BARRELING TOWARD ONE OF THE LONGEST SHUTDOWNS' IN HISTORY

Sen. Ron Johnson speaks to reporters in washington
Sen. Ron Johnson talks with reporters in the U.S. Capitol after the
House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on May 22, 2025. (Tom Williams/Getty Images)

The shutdown looks poised to continue with no resolution in sight,
prompting lawmakers to worry about key areas that are feeling the
shutdownrCOs effects more acutely. The Johnson-Young supplemental package
was the most recent attempt to provide a limited basis for relieving
some of that pain.

Ahead of ThursdayrCOs vote, Republicans in the House of Representatives appeared open to considering the Johnson-Young bill.


House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told House Republicans during a lawmaker-only call on Tuesday that his chamber would be "prepared to
act" if the bill passed the Senate, Fox News Digital was told. Johnson
has repeatedly said he would give lawmakers 48 hours' notice to return
to Washington before any votes but has largely signaled he will keep the
House out of session until Senate Democrats pass the GOP's funding bill.

Johnson also said on the call that he was skeptical the bill would get
enough Senate Democratic support to pass.

"If they oppose the Ron Johnson bill in the Senate, it will be
absolutely clear that they are simply using the military and air traffic control and law enforcement and all these other personnel as pawns for
their political efforts," Johnson said, Fox News Digital was told.

But other lawmakers had hesitations about partially reopening the
government, offering relief to some workers and not others. That was the concern of Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., ahead of ThursdayrCOs vote.

"I have a concern about picking and choosing among all the federal
workers," Blumenthal said.

"IrCOm fine to support it. I think we need to pay our military, but I want
to define and limit it in a way that provides pay to essential workers
who serve our public safety and our national defense," Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal voted against the measure.


Democrats in the House of Representatives signaled similar lines of
opposition to the idea behind the Johnson-Young bill.

HOUSE GOP BLOCKS DEMS' MILITARY PAY BILL AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
THREATENS CHECKS

"It's not legislation that I support, because it appears to be more like
a political ploy to pick and choose, giving Donald Trump discretion
[over] which employees should be compensated, and which employees should
not be compensated. All employees should be compensated and that will
happen when we reopen the government," House Minority Leader Hakeem
Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters on Monday.

Hakeem Jeffries gestures while speaking
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., holds a press conference
on the 14th day of the government shutdown on Capitol Hill in
Washington, Oct. 14, 2025. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Senate Democrats also defeated other pieces of legislation that would
open portions of the government. Last week, Democrats in the Senate
voted against a 2026 defense spending bill -!rCo one of the 12 year-long
bills normally used to fund the government.

Aside from the Johnson-Young bill, the Senate will not consider other
pieces of spending legislation on Thursday. Senators are scheduled to
leave Washington, D.C., on Thursday and will return at the beginning of
next week.

Leo Briceno is a politics reporter for the congressional team at Fox
News Digital. He was previously a reporter with World Magazine.

Sponsored Stories You May Like

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2